FLYING COLOURS: Biswanath Nag outside his art school in Bally. Picture by Dipankar Mazumder

Biswanath Nag is a busy art teacher in Abhoynagar, Bally. He has more than 450 students and has written a book on how to draw. But even six years ago, the 56-year-old was pulling a rickshaw for a living.

Nag?s journey from rickshaw-puller to art teacher is a story of hardship and perseverance. The eldest of three sons and two daughters, his ordeal began after father Priya Kumar lost his job when Bengal Fine Cotton Mills, in Konnagar, shut down. Nag was in Class V then.

?My father wanted me to give up studies and start supporting the family,? recalls Nag. He rebelled, but to no avail. Soon, he was carrying passengers in his rickshaw between Raghunathpur bazaar and Uttarpara station for Rs 1.50 per trip. Despite the struggle, Nag did not give up studies or hang up his brushes. He attended classes at Nafar Academy High School, pulled a rickshaw later and painted at night. He pinched pennies to buy colours.

?The hardship he went through is unbelievable,? says Basudeb Talapatra, a teacher of science and drawing at the school. In Class VIII, the boy from Bally dropped out, but nothing could extinguish his passion for painting. He regularly visited the studios of local artists like Prakash Karmakar, Bijon Choudhuri, Chandrasekhar Seth, Ashok Basu and Sunil Bandopadhyay for tips on technique. ?I learnt a lot from them. They never hesitated to teach me. I am indebted to them,? says Nag.

Painter Prakash Karmakar remembers his young apprentice: ?Biswanath often came to watch me paint. He was so devoted, I could not turn him out.?

While most rickshaw-pullers used to hit the bottle after a day?s work, Nag sketched on the footpath, by the light of a lamp post. ?The other rickshaw-pullers often bought me a bottle and asked me to accompany them to brothels in Dankuni. I didn?t give in because I knew I could never become a painter if I became an addict,? declares Nag.

In 1988, Nag opened his drawing school, Tulir Sansar, at home with four students, but continued pulling rickshaws to augment his earnings. Before long, students had started pouring in. He now teaches in drawing schools in Liluah, Belur, Bally and Konnagar.

Nag?s alma mater employed him as drawing teacher in June 2003. Chotoder Sahay Anka, a drawing book authored and sketched by him, with instructions in Bengali, English and Hindi, followed soon after.

Nag doesn?t have to pull a rickshaw any more, but he is not one to turn his back on the past. ?I want to open a school for the children of rickshaw-pullers, in which they will learn painting for free. I shall even give them colours and brushes after collecting money from the local people,? he signs off.